Page 112 of Broken Warrior
Dori huffs. “Well, they aren’t getting any better. If anything, Tate is withdrawing more and more, getting so lost in herself that she can’t find her way out. And James… he’s lost his spark. The things he tells Miles, they’re heartbreaking, Zak.”
“I know, honey. I know. But do you really think that now is a good time?”
“Then when would the time be, hmm? Thisgood timeyou want to wait for? When James graduates high school? Maybe when Tate is in the bed next to mine at the nursing home? I can’t keep this from her any longer and maybe if we tell her—”
“Tell me what?” I say as I step off the bottom stair and into the hall where they’re doing a shitty job hiding. “What is it that you can’t agree on telling me?”
Zak sighs and scrubs a hand over his face as Dori tenses up. “Tate… we… I, well, I think there’s something you need to know.”
I lift a brow as I cross my arms against my chest. “But Zak doesn’t.”
Dori scowls as Zak shakes his head. “Not really.”
“Because I’m too unstable to handle whatever it is you don’t think I should know?”
“It’s not that, I just…” Zak sighs. “I just think now might not be a good time for you to find out.”
“Find out what?”
“Damnit, Tate, please don’t make us tell you. I swear I’m just trying to protect you, that’s all it is. I just—”
“Fin is moving away!” Dori blurts. “He has three weeks left and then he’s moving. He’s leaving the club, the bar, everything, and he’s moving away.”
I sway on my feet before I back toward the stairs, sliding down the wall then dropping to my ass.
Leaving?
Finlay is leaving Sabine Woods? Leaving the club and his family… leaving Colorado?
Fin is leavingJames?
I bury my face in my hands as the tears I was trying to hold in break free.
Three weeks ago, when Fin broke things off then marched into battle to save my son, I had no idea how things were going to play out. I hoped that he’d get James back without any sort of injury, without too much of a fight, but I also didn’t want to just stand by and let it all go down if I could be some kind of help.
Turns out, I was no help at all.
I threw open the doors of that dilapidated church with high hopes of being a distraction, one that would take the focus off of James and Fin so they could get out, but instead I ran in just in time to see my world fall apart.
Nick and Bruno opened fire as soon as I started down the aisle. I didn’t realize it at the time because Fin was right there shoving me in between the rotting pews, but they opened fire and each got off a couple rounds—shooting Finlay in the process—before the rest of the club broke in. And if that wasn’t enough, I looked up from my barricade just in time to see Gino pull the trigger, his gun aimed right at my soulmate. He shot Fin three times in the chest and a bullet grazed the side of his face, but my man went down swinging because he hit Gino Valetti right between the eyes and killed that son of a bitch almost instantly.
It all happened so fast, watching them face off, both of them going down without getting back up.
My first instinct was to go to James though, and I did, even though it destroyed me to leave Fin there, bleeding and motionless. But I had to make sure my baby was ok, had to make sure that bastard didn’t hurt him, and in the back of my mind I knew one of the guys would take care of the love of my life until I could get to him.
Finlay died on the way to Marbles’s house.
Apparently Pope had to give him CPR in the back of the Escalade and he brought him back long enough to take him inside where Dr. Berk, Harlow, and Sofie worked on Fin for hours.Hoursbefore he was even close to stable, and after that it was a crapshoot because he had lost so much blood and two of the bullets tore up his lungs. It’s a miracle Finlay survived to be honest, his wounds coming in at a whopping six gunshots. Recovery has been going well from what I understand, but it’s going to be a long road for my soulmate.
One I haven’t been a part of.
I wanted to see him, wanted to go to Fin so badly after it all happened, and I’ve wanted to every single day since then but I know he won’t see me if I try.
It’s still too raw, too scary and real, and if I went to Marbles’s house after Fin had been so adamant on ending things with me the night James was taken, the stress would be too much on him.
So I’ve waited.
Waited with nothing but my pain and guilt, the grief over the finality of losing the only man I’ll ever love.
